Wireless communication has become pervasive over the last couple of decades. Specifically, cellular networks have become ubiquitous both within the United States as well as internationally. Recent advances in Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) and WiMax are further receiving much attention for data communications within wireless local area network (WLAN). Increasingly, WLAN technologies are becoming capable of providing high bandwidth services and adequate quality of service for multi-service communications, such as voice, video and data.
WLAN penetration within the enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMB) promises to significantly improve workforce productivity. Present architectures for data and voice communications are inadequate to provide true workforce mobilization within the enterprises and SMBs. The cellular architecture in the form of second generation (2G), third generation (3G), and the forthcoming fourth generation (4G) architectures are commonplace and provide limited mobility management infrastructure.
However, such architectures are generally private to the operating carrier, and no access is available for external agencies to the carrier's network for comprehensive device mobility management. The general reluctance of the wireless carriers in opening up their private mobility management solutions to the public is rooted in the business need for the carriers to maintain control over the subscribers within their networks.
On the other hand, the subscriber's preference is to carry a single mobile device for comprehensive communications with custom mobility management capabilities and is in direct odds with the business needs of the carrier. The convergence of wireless local area networks and cellular wireless networks further highlights the competing interests of the subscriber and the service provider.
An advanced technique for comprehensive mobility management under the control of the subscriber is needed to provide true workforce mobilization and advanced services within the enterprise, SMBs and subscribers in general.